Cherokee County Texas Archives Photo Place.....Mound Prairie February 2010
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Gina Heffernan http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006585 February 26, 2010, 3:47 pm

Source:             Gina Heffernan
Photo can be seen at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/cherokee/photos/moundpra9186gph.jpg
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Historical Marker at Caddo Mounds State Park

Bulging out of the earth a few yards form this point, three prehistoric Indian
mounds interrupt the prevailing flat terrain. Long overgrown with grass, the
mounds and adjacent village (covering about 100 acres) constitute one of the
major aboriginal sites in North America. From about 500 to 1100 A.D., Caddoan
Indians inhabited the village, which lay near the southwest edge of a great
mound-building culture. Called "Mississippian," this culture once flourished
throughout the present eastern United States. Excavations during 1939-41 and
1968-69 showed two of the mounds to have had ceremonial purposes. One may have
been capped with bright yellow clay and both apparently supported temples. The
tallest mound (about 20 feet) revealed several major burials. The village,
surrounding the mounds but not settled before they were built, contained many
round houses that probably resembled giant bee hives. Thousands of pot
fragments, some pipes, charred corn cobs and nuts, and flint points were found
in the area. Centuries after its abandonment by the Indians, this region was
again a center of civilization when, in 1690, the first Spanish mission in Est
Texas was built nearby to minister to the Neches Indians.

Additional Comments:
Eight miles west of Alto on SH 21.

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